FILM 1199: THE GREAT DICTATOR
TRIVIA: Adolf Hitler banned the
film in Germany and in all countries occupied by the Nazis. Curiosity got the
best of him, and he had a print brought in through Portugal. History records
that he screened it twice, in private, but history did not record his reaction
to the film. Charles
Chaplin said, "I'd give anything to know what he thought of
it." For political reasons in Germany, the ban stayed after the end of
WWII until 1958.
Adolf Hitler considered Charles Chaplin to be one
of the greatest actors he had ever seen, while Hitler assumed that Chaplin was
a Jew.
Charles Chaplin said that
had he known the true extent of Nazi atrocities, he "could not have made
fun of their homicidal insanity".
Although this movie was banned in
all occupied countries by the Nazis, it was screened once to a German audience.
In the occupied Balkans, members of a resistance group switched the reels in a
military cinema and replaced a comedic opera with a copy of this film, which
they had smuggled in from Greece. So a group of German soldiers enjoyed a
screening of this film until they realized what it was. Some left the cinema
and some were reported to have fired shots at the screen.
Released 13 years after the end of
the silent era, this was Charles
Chaplin's first all-talking, all-sound film.
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